Early career

Born in Norwalk, Sharp starting racing karts when he was only 8 years old, winning 50 out of 75 races. Sharp came from a road-racing background, earning several championships including: 1986 SCCA GT-2, 1987 and 1988 SCCA GT-1, and 1991 and 1993 SCCA Trans-Am. Sharp competed in one NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Sprint Cup) event, coming in 1992 at Watkins Glen. In 1993, Sharp made his CART debut with Bettenhausen Motorsports and became a full-time competitor in the series in 1994 with PacWest Racing. His first Indianapolis 500 start also came in 1994. In 1996, Sharp was part of Doyle Racing’s 24 Hours of Daytona winning team.

Indy Racing League career

Overview

Sharp is one of only two drivers (the other being Buddy Lazier) to have driven in at least one race in each of the first 12 seasons of IndyCar competition. His impressive IRL career has resulted in numerous records including: most career IndyCar Series starts (147); most consecutive IndyCar Series race starts (138); most races running at finish (110) and previously held the records for most top-ten finishes (82) and most consecutive seasons with at least one race win (7) (now both held by Hélio Castroneves).

History

He was one of the competitors in the first IRL race in 1996 with Foyt, the owner of his 1995 Indianapolis 500 car. He was the co-champion of the IRL's inaugural season in 1996 along with Buzz Calkins. In 1997 two crashes resulting in severe concussions sidelined Sharp until 1998 when he began working with the newly formed Kelley Racing team and sponsor Delphi. At Kelley, Sharp collected eight wins and four pole positions (one being at the 2001 Indianapolis 500). He was 3rd in the championship in 2001, but an influx of strong teams from CART meant that Kelley was not one of the strongest teams after that season. In 2004 he was down in 13th in the championship with a best finish of 8th — his first winless season since 1998, also ending a run of top 8 championship finishes dating back to 1998.

Kelley folded following the conclusion of the 2004 season. In 2005, Sharp, along with Delphi (who had become his personal sponsor), moved to Adrian Fernández's Fernández Racing. The switch brought about a small resurgence in Sharp's career and he was once again one of the top drivers in the IRL. 2005 saw him finish 5th in the championship, collecting a win at Kentucky Speedway along the way. However, Sharp struggled through the 2006 season as the team struggled to adapt to the Dallara chassis, and finished 11th in the points standings.

For 2007, Sharp joined Rahal Letterman Racing, teaming with sophomore driver Jeff Simmons, though mid-season Simmons was replaced with Ryan Hunter-Reay. Sharp brought with him a new primary sponsor, the Patrón Spirits Company, who began as an associate sponsor in 2006. His new association with Patrón ended nine seasons of Delphi backing. His best finish of the season was 3rd, which he earned at the inaugural race at Iowa Speedway and also at Michigan International Speedway. A highlight of the season was his surprise pole position Texas Motor Speedway in June, his first since 2001. He was also able to capture his career-best finish in the Indianapolis 500, a 6th place. Sharp ended the season 8th in the championship standings.

Sharp returned to the series and compete in the 2009 Indianapolis 500 with Panther Racing. He qualified 20th and finished 14th on the lead lap.

American Le Mans Series career

Sharp was under contract with Rahal Letterman Racing for 2008, but the two entities parted ways after each filed a breach of contract lawsuit against the other. Sharp and Patrón joined the American Le Mans Series with Highcroft Racing. He drives the #9 Patrón Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01b with David Brabham during the 2008 season in the LMP2 class.

Sharp started seventh in his debut race at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and finished fourth in class (fifth overall) with teammates Brabham and Stefan Johansson. The team finished second at the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg, which was Highcroft’s best finish to date. Sharp earned his first ALMS win in the P2 class at the Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach. The win was also the first for Highcroft Racing. Sharp earned his first overall win in the American Le Mans Series at the 2008 Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park after starting from the pole position. A third class victory followed at the Generac 500 at Road America. When leader Gil de Ferran ran out of fuel on the last lap in Mosport awarded the team a fourth victory and second consecutive win.

Arguably, Sharp’s breakout ALMS performance came at the Detroit Sportscar Challenge presented by Bosch. He led for most of his stint, giving up the lead only when blocked in heavy traffic. His stellar driving won him SPEEDtv.com’s ‘Drive of the Race,’ though the team had to settle for second place in the event. Sharp and Brabham were joined by Dario Franchitti, one of Sharp’s former IndyCar competitors, for the 10-hour Petit Le Mans endurance race. Unfortunately, broken suspension took the car out of competition early on.

The combination of Sharp and Brabham proved a formidable and a combination of bad luck, and a triple-pronged effort from Penske Racing at the end of the season kept Sharp and Brabham from a championship. The duo finished second in the P2 point standings, forty one points behind the Penske Racing duo of Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas, after being as close as four points away with two rounds to go.

Extreme Speed Motorsports

Main article: Extreme Speed Motorsports

It was announced on the American Le Mans Series website that Sharp would race in the 2010 series under his own team called Extreme Speed Motorsports. He ran with two Ferrari F430's in the GT class and was sponsored by the Patrón Spirits Company. Sharp raced in 2010 alongside the first announced driver, Patrón CEO Ed Brown.

In 2011, the team switched to newer Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 cars. The team made steady progress which culminated in a 3rd-place finish at the Laguna Seca race.

As of 2013 the team continues to run in the ALMS. The #02 car picked up another podium finish at the 2012 American Le Mans Series at Long Beach, and the #01 won the 2012 Grand Prix of Mosport—the first win for the team since its move to the GT class.

On January 1st, 2016, Sharp won the Rolex 24 for the second time, with ESR.

Motorsports career results

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

Year	Track	Car	Engine	Class	Finish	Start	Status
1986	Road Atlanta	Nissan 280Z	Nissan	GT2	1	4	Running
1986	Road Atlanta	Nissan 300ZX	Nissan	GT1	1	2	Running
		Nissan 280Z	Nissan	GT2	4	4	Running
1986	Road Atlanta	Nissan 300ZX	Nissan	GT1	1	2	Running

American open-wheel

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

CART

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
1993	Bettenhausen Racing	Penske PC22	Chevrolet 265C V8t	SRF	PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIS	NHM	ROA	VAN	MDO	NZR	LS		48th	0
1994	PacWest Racing	Lola T94/00	Ford XB V8t	SRF	PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIS	MDO	NHM	VAN	ROA	NZR	LS		21st	14
1995	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Lola T95/00	Ford XB V8t	MIA	SRF	PHX	LBH	NZR	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	ROA	TOR	CLE	MIS	MDO	NHM	VAN	LS	44th	0

IndyCar Series

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
1996	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Lola T95/00	Ford XB V8t	WDW		IND															1st-Tie	246
		Lola T94/00			PHX
1996-1997	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Lola T95/00	Ford XB V8t	NWH	LVS																22nd	119
		Dallara IR7	Oldsmobile Aurora V8			WDW				PPIR	CHR	NH2	LV2
		G-Force GF01					PHX	IND	TXS
1998	Kelley Racing	Dallara IR8	Oldsmobile Aurora V8	WDW	PHX	IND	TXS	NWH	DOV	CHR	PPIR	ATL	TX2	LVS							4th	272
1999	Kelley Racing	Dallara IR9	Oldsmobile Aurora V8	WDW	PHX	CLT	IND	TXS	PPIR	ATL	DOV	PPI2	LVS	TX2							8th	220
2000	Kelley Racing	Dallara IR-00	Oldsmobile Aurora V8	WDW	PHX	LVS	IND	TXS	PPIR	ATL	KTY	TX2									7th	196
2001	Kelley Racing	Dallara IR-01	Oldsmobile Aurora V8	PHX	HMS	ATL	IND	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	KTY	STL	CHI	TX2					3rd	355
2002	Kelley Racing	Dallara IR-02	Chevrolet Indy V8	HMS	PHX	FON	NZR	IND	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	KTY	STL	CHI	TX2			6th	332
2003	Kelley Racing	Dallara IR-03	Toyota Indy V8	HMS	PHX	MOT	IND	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	STL	KTY	NZR	CHI	FON	TX2		8th	351
2004	Delphi Kelley Racing	Dallara IR-04	Toyota Indy V8	HMS	PHX	MOT	IND	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	PPIR	NZR	CHI	FON	TX2		13th	282
2005	Delphi Fernández Racing	Panoz GF09C	Honda HI5R V8	HMS	PHX	STP	MOT	IND	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	PPIR	SNM	CHI	WGL	FON	5th	444
2006	Delphi Fernández Racing	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI6R V8	HMS	STP	MOT	IND		TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY		CHI				12th	287
		Panoz GF09C						WGL								SNM
2007	Rahal Letterman Racing	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI7R V8	HMS	STP	MOT	KAN	IND	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	MIS	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI	8th	412
2009	Panther Racing	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI7R V8	STP	LBH	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	TOR	EDM	KTY	MDO	SNM	CHI	MOT	HMS	34th	16

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)	Top 10s (Non-podium)	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
13	5	147	6	9	9	64	0	1 (1996)

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
1994	Lola T94/00	Ford XB V8t	17	16	PacWest Racing
1995	Lola T95/00	Ford XB V8t	30	26	A. J. Foyt Enterprises
1996	Lola T95/00	Ford XB V8t	21	10	A. J. Foyt Enterprises
1997	G-Force GF01	Oldsmobile Aurora V8	DNQ		A. J. Foyt Enterprises
1998	Dallara IR8	Oldsmobile Aurora V8	7	16	Kelley Racing
1999	Dallara IR9	Oldsmobile Aurora V8	6	28	Kelley Racing
2000	Dallara IR-00	Oldsmobile Aurora V8	5	10	Kelley Racing
2001	Dallara IR-01	Oldsmobile Aurora V8	1	33	Kelley Racing
2002	Dallara IR-02	Chevrolet Indy V8	8	27	Kelley Racing
2003	Dallara IR-03	Toyota Indy V8	9	20	Kelley Racing
2004	Dallara IR-04	Toyota Indy V8	20	13	Kelley Racing
2005	Panoz GF09C	Honda HI6R V8	3	7	Fernández Racing
2006	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI6R V8	8	9	Fernández Racing
2007	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI7R V8	12	6	Rahal Letterman Racing
2009	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI7R V8	20	14	Panther Racing

Touring/sports car racing

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1996	Riley & Scott Cars Inc.	Wayne Taylor Jim Pace	Riley & Scott Mk III-Oldsmobile	WSC	157	DNF	DNF
2015	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ryan Dalziel David Heinemeier Hansson	Ligier JS P2-Honda	LMP2	329	28th	10th

American Le Mans Series results

(Races in bold indicate pole position)

Series	Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Final Pos.	Points
ALMS P2	2008	Patrón Highcroft	SEB	STP	LGB	MMP	LRP	MDO	ROA	MOS	DET	ATL	LAG	3rd	162
ALMS P1	2009	Patrón Highcroft	SEB	STP	LGB	MMP	LRP	MDO	ROA	MOS	ATL	LAG		1st	179
ALMS GT2	2010	Extreme Speed Motorsports	SEB	LGB	LAG	MMP	LRP	MDO	ROA	MOS	ATL			10th	70
ALMS GT	2011	Extreme Speed Motorsports	SEB	LGB	LRP	MOS	MDO	ROA	BAL	LAG	ATL			7th	66
ALMS GT	2012	Extreme Speed Motorsports	SEB	LGB	LAG	LRP	MOS	MDO	ROA	BAL	VIR	ATL		2nd	123
ALMS P2	2013	Extreme Speed Motorsports	SEB	LGB	LAG	LRP	MOS	ROA	BAL	COTA	VIR	ATL		3rd	163

* Overall victory as well as class victory. Italics indicates season is currently running.

WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results

(key)(Races in bold indicate pole position, Results are overall/class)

Year	Team	Car	Engine	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Rank	Points
2014	Extreme Speed Motorsports	HPD ARX-03b	Honda HR28TT 2.8 L V6 Turbo	P	DAY	SIR	LBH	LS	DET	S6H	MSP	IMS	ELK	COA	PET	9th	228
2015	Tequila Patrón ESM	HPD ARX-04b HPD ARX-03b	Honda HR28TT 2.8 L V6 Turbo	P	DAY	SIR	LBH	LS	DET	S6H	MSP	ELK	COA	PET		21nd	45
2016	Tequila Patrón ESM	Ligier JS P2	Honda HR35TT 3.5 L V6 Turbo	P	DAY	SIR	LBH	LS	DET	S6H	MSP	ELK	COA	PET		1st	72

NASCAR

(key) (Bold - Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics - Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * - Most laps led.)

Winston Cup Series

NASCAR Winston Cup Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	NWCC	Pts
1992	Jimmy Means Racing	52	Pontiac	DAY	CAR	RCH	ATL	DAR	BRI	NWS	MAR	TAL	CLT	DOV	SON	POC	MCH	DAY	POC	TAL	GLN	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	MAR	NWS	CLT	CAR	PHO	ATL	69th	106

[ Source: Wikipedia ]